Christmas is just around the corner, and ’tis the season to be giving! While some of us have yet to even start on our Christmas shopping, an anonymous Santa has already presented three schools in Hokkaido, Japan, with a whopping gift of over 3,000 books in total!

It was reported that a mysterious elderly man approached Kato Shokan, a local bookstore, and made a request to have “books that children would be happy to receive” delivered to three primary schools in Kushiro City, eastern Hokkaido. The bookstore staff asked for the sender’s name, but the man, who appeared to be in his eighties, did not answer to that, only leaving six million yen (approximately US$57,900) in cold, hard cash on the counter in payment for his generous purchase.

The three schools, Akan Primary School, Nakateshibetsu Primary School, and Ninishibetsu Primary School, each received over a thousand books including dictionaries, illustrated books and novels for children. One thousand new books! The children were beyond elated, of course! Over at Akan Primary School, the school’s library did not have sufficient space to house the unexpected volume of books, so they set up a reading corner in the school’s front hall and named it the Santa Library in honor of their real-life Santa.

Here are a few comments from students as well as the Principal of one of the schools:

We are really grateful. If it was possible, I would really like to meet the man who sent us the books and thank him in person. We will treasure the books! (Principal of Akan Primary School)